Little
Texas
Closes 20th Anniversary Year with a
Surprise
Show in an Unlikely Venue
What do you do when your high school marching band is out of town and
your football team is hosting a regional playoff game?
Nashville, TN November 6, 2009: What
do you do when your high school marching band is out of town and your football
team is hosting a regional playoff game? Well, if you're in the
Nashville
suburb of
Brentwood
,
Tennessee
, you have country rockers Little
Texas
fill in as your pep band.
That's what happened last Friday night, November 6th,
as the hometown
Brentwood
Bruins hosted the Rossview Hawks in their regional playoff.
Just two days before the official end of their 20th
Anniversary year, the morning of Nov. 6th brought a flurry of activity to the
members of Little Texas, who had originally thought they would be enjoying a
rare Friday off at home.
While perusing the local Brentwood news, Little Texas
guitarist/vocalist Dwayne O'Brien read an article that said Brentwood's
award-winning marching band would be out of town at an elite competition that
was unfortunately conflicted with the football game. "I couldn't imagine a
high school football game - much less a home playoff game - without some kind of
a band," O'Brien said, "so I wanted to see if there was anything that
I could do."
The civic-minded O'Brien was prompted into action and
contacted
Brentwood
principal Kevin Keidel, who quickly gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the idea.
"It was such a crazy notion and so last minute that I had no idea if we
could pull it off," O'Brien said. "I didn't even know if the other
guys were available or not." But a few phone calls later, fellow members
Duane Propes, Porter Howell, and Del Gray were on board for the game, and local
volunteers
quickly pieced together a sound system for the event.
The band, clad in blue
Brentwood
Bruin jerseys, brought out the team with Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy
Train" and proceeded to crank out classic rock and roll between plays,
taking requests from the student body. An all electric guitar version of the
school's fight song rocked the stadium after every touchdown. They also
performed a mini concert at halftime which included their hits "Kick a
Little," and "God Blessed
Texas
," which was changed to "God Blessed
Brentwood
" to the cheers of the home grandstands. "We just wanted to make as
much noise as we could to
keep the spirit up during the game," O'Brien
said. "The cheerleaders did a great job, the crowd was into it, and the
team was on fire. It was a great night."
Brentwood
won 35 to 7.
Little Texas will continue their local stadium
performance series when they sing the National Anthem at Vanderbilt Stadium as
the Commodores host Kentucky on Saturday, November 14th.
With over
seven million albums and mega hits like “What Might Have Been”, “My
Love”, and “God Blessed Texas” to their credit, Little Texas burst onto
the music scene in the 90’s like a rocket, and within 5 years had established
themselves as one of country’s “supergroups” and one of the most exciting
live bands of the genre. Known as
“the hardest working band in country music”, Little
Texas
is celebrating their 20th anniversary with a renewed energy and
excitement to their music that fans nationwide have come to love and respect.
The multi-platinum band’s four original members – Duane Propes,
Porter Howell, Dwayne O’Brien and Del Gray have released two new albums and
couldn’t be happier to be back on tour and bringing fans what they do best.
